To keep these bars soft, reduce baking time to about 8 to 10 min. 15 is too much. Remember if you are adding additional dry ingredients to substitute them for oats. There should be 2 cups dry ingredients total. If you add more dry(seeds, nuts, etc) you must also increase the wet (honey, pb).
My 4-star rating is based solely on taste they are yummy (and easy to make). However at 15 minutes in the oven they ended up "crunchy" and dried out. I followed the recipe except for adding a few mini chocolate chips and some chopped peanuts. I will make these again but I'll check them at about 7 minutes as I know they'll dry out/solidify once they're removed from the oven and cool. What I'm looking for is a granola bar that is somewhat soft but doesn't fall apart or crumble and I think that means less time in the oven. Nice recipe Naomi thanks for sharing.
Unbelievable! I added 1/3 cup of almonds and 1/3 cup of slivered almonds.
I was low on granola bars and too lazy to go to the store so I searched and found this recipe. I have made it twice in the last week and it came out great both times. The first time I had no honey so I used molasses which was a strong flavor but tasty. The second time I used honey 1T. creamy PB and 1T. chunky PB and we liked them even better for the little added crunch of the nuts. My hubs prefers his granola bars crunchy so I pressed them very well then baked each batch for 15-16 minutes. I STRONGLY SUGGEST if you bake them to be crunchy you cut these bars fresh out of the oven. They will be sticky and I had to kind of press the bars back down along either side of the cut lines before leaving them to cool but after cooling they kind of just snapped apart in the pan but THEY STAYED INTACT IN THEIR BAR SHAPE. I cannot imagine how one could cut them into nice bar shapes if one waited for them to cool completely into crunchy bars but after cutting while warm it was easy. As an added bonus i just added any of the little bits that fell off into our cereal container so there was no waste. Love this recipe and the hubs was impressed at how "professional" they looked. I was impressed that now I can make granola bars that are preservative-free. Thanks for sharing.
It came out a crumbly mess, couldn't cut them. Tastes great, though and I'll use it to sprinkle on yogurt. I'll try again after I brush off my ego. This time I'll follow the recipe exactly, and if it comes out better I'll up my rating!
Great basic granola bar recipe. Tasty and easy. Came right out of the (greased) pan. I cut it twice - once while still slightly warm then I went over the lines again after it had cooled completely. Worked for me. Next time I may try adding cinnamon and raisins.
Super easy to make. I added some mini chocolate chips and flax seeds - really good!
I didn't have peanut butter and instead used Nutella. They came out pretty good. I like that these are chewy and not crispy granola bars.
I used a couple of the reviewers suggestions for adding this and that. I too added 1/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips, some sunflower seeds, finely chopped pecans, and some ground flax meal. I didn't know I had cranberries, but I'll make this again and add all those things plus the cranberries and some cinnamon. This is the second time I've made this recipe and followed the original recipe the first time. It was good, but I wanted to add more "texture" to it, thus the changes. I agree with the one reviewer who mentioned that this is a good basic recipe for granola. I've rated it 5 stars because the recipe was really good.
